Hi.
As promised I have been having a look at the rockbox utility with jaws, and
actually I must say since I last had a propper look at it a lot of
accessibility problems seem to have been ironed out.
However there are a few major ones that I can still see that I will now
describe. These were all encountered with the latest version of rockbox
utility, and the latest version of jaws.

Firstly in the configuration dialog, the titles of the tabs are not read.
So although I can read the contents of a given tab the title of it is not
read to me when I go into it, jaws just says tab, meaning that I have to
explore the controls to work out which tab I am on.
In fact, throughout the utility the titles of none of the tabs are read.

We have more serious accessibility problems though in the create voice file
dialog.
These are as follows
firstly when you click the button to change the voice file generation
settings, in the combo box that contains the lists of possible synthesizers
that can be used for voice generation when you arrow up or down this box is
not read.
However if you hit the down arrow for example to change the synth to flight,
and then tab to the next control in the dialog and then shift tab back this
box is read. Obviously the correct behaviour for the screen reader should be
that each time the synthesizer option is changed it should be read without
having to tab out of and back into the combo box.
The next problem is a bit harder to describe, outside the box to change
voice generation settings there is a box who's default value is set at 500.
There are two problems with this box, firstly its title is not read meaning
that a blind user has no idea what this box controls. Secondly, if you arrow
up and down within the box as the value changes jaws will not read the value
to you as it is changed. However if you tab out of and back into the box it
is read.

The same problem is true of the box that controls the language of the
generated voice, its title is not read, the only reason I know it controls
the language of the voice to be generated is because the default value is at
English. The contents of this box are not read when it is changed either so
for example if you change from English to Spanish you wouldn't know you had
done this till you tabbed out of the box and back into it.

There is one combo box under configure tts that is not read at all, even if
you tab out of and back into it. To locate it, if you are on the box to set
the language, hit tab once and you are on the box that will not read at all,
so obviously I have no idea what this particular box does.

If you stay focused on this box that will not read, and then press your tab
key once there is a box that has numbers you can change, its default value
is 0, again jaws will not read the value as you change it, you have to tab
away from and back to the box, also its title is not read meaning that we
don't no what the box actually controls.

Next to this box is a blank edit field, jaws just reads edit when I tab into
it, so I have no idea what is supposed to go in there.

The configure encoder settings suffer from similar problems.

If you are focused on the cancel button and press tab you find a box with a
default value of 1.0, jaws doesn't read the value as it changes, and also
doesn't read its title so I don't no what its for.
The same problem is true of the box that is next to the checkbox that says
narrow band for its title, you press tab and find a box with a default value
of 8.0, again, no indication from jaws of its title or what it might be for,
and the value is not read as you change it with the up and down arrow keys,
you can only find out what it is by tabbing away and back to the box.
The same problem is true for the box next to that that has a default value
of 10.

Also, jaws is not able to read any information in either of the about boxes
propperly, though it does read some kind of web address when you go to the
option that is just called about, but it doesn't read any version
information or anything. Also, the address is not read propperly.
Interestingly, jaws is able to read the box that lists the different players
that rockbox can be installed on with no problem.

I hope my information has been of help, if you have any questions please
feel free to ask, and let me no if you make changes and I will be happy to
test them to see if they make any difference.
Received on 2009-05-11